In today's obituaries of La Nacion newspaper, we've got the Zorreguieta family expressing their condolences for the death of Marta Seeber de Braun (a friend of the family, I suppose). One of them includes Maxima, the prince and her brothers, the other Jorge Z. and Maria.

Ah, I already wondered if she was related to fatehr Braun. But is father Brauns complete last name Seeber de Braun? Or is Seeber his mothers own last name? She must have been on quite an advanced age, as father Braun himself seemed around 60 at the time of the wedding.

Nice that they place an advert and under just Maxima and Alexander van Oranje, very simple. What do they mean with (as) before Martin Zorreguieta?

Ah, I already wondered if she was related to fatehr Braun. But is father Brauns complete last name Seeber de Braun? Or is Seeber his mothers own last name? She must have been on quite an advanced age, as father Braun himself seemed around 60 at the time of the wedding.

Nice that they place an advert and under just Maxima and Alexander van Oranje, very simple. What do they mean with (as) before Martin Zorreguieta?

I guess Seeber is his mother's surname. (and de Braun must have been her wedding surname)
(as) means absent(Máxima&Alexander will not attend the funeral or sth like that)

Father Braun is a family friend and a priest. He read from the bible at the wedding of WA and Maxima and he did some more things, asking the Argentine witnesses of Maxima some questions etc. I believe he was also present at the baptism of Amalia.

Braun is more German then Dutch. We have some Brauns here but they should be able to trace back their roots to Germany too (as are many Dutchmen).

I guess Seeber is his mother's surname. (and de Braun must have been her wedding surname)
(as) means absent(Máxima&Alexander will not attend the funeral or sth like that)

Indeed, in our country a married woman can add her husband's surname to hers, by linking them with "de" (which means 'of' - in English - or 'van' in Dutch). It's customary, though not compulsory. And in these aristocratic families, the more surnames, the merrier !

Well, they should marry a Portuguese, they can basically add as many last names as they like, terribly impressive for a foreigner

I know this is a bit off the topic but the Portuguese cannot add as many surnames as they want. A Portuguese is allowed to have no more than 2 names and 5 surnames. What matters to the Portuguese upper-class is not the number of surnames you have but the "quality" of those surnames.

Mind you when the Dutch were ordered by Napolean to take last names, some of them thought that it would be a passing trend and took names like van de straat, Deurmaker, and hondenpoep, which basically translates to From the street, Doormaker and dog poop, respectively. Needless to say it was not a passing fad, and now people are wondering around with very strange last names indeed.

Mind you when the Dutch were ordered by Napolean to take last names, some of them thought that it would be a passing trend and took names like van de straat, Deurmaker, and hondenpoep, which basically translates to From the street, Doormaker and dog poop, respectively. Needless to say it was not a passing fad, and now people are wondering around with very strange last names indeed.

I was not talking about Dutch surnames, but about Portuguese surnames. As it is usual in every country, Portugal included, almost all the surnames, have a toponymic origin or a patronymic (or nickname) origin. A good portuguese surname usually has a toponymic origin, like Bragança, Fronteira, Cadaval, etc.

Here, in Argentina is pretty common that high class families would form their family names making them "composés" (I don't know how to say it in English). They combines names from father family and mother's family and they makes just one. They are some of them who passed combined this way , as if it was a single name. For example, if the father was named Urquiza and the mother Anchorena, the family's name should be "Urquiza-Anchorena" And the hilarious thing is that you may have a name where different roots are combined in a signle one...For example: "Braun Blaquier", "Catelin Paz", "Caselli-Urrutia", "Meyer -Pellegrini" or "Lopez-Murphy"....Just to quote a few examples.

Here, in Argentina is pretty common that high class families would form their family names making them "composés" (I don't know how to say it in English). They combines names from father family and mother's family and they makes just one. They are some of them who passed combined this way , as if it was a single name. For example, if the father was named Urquiza and the mother Anchorena, the family's name should be "Urquiza-Anchorena" And the hilarious thing is that you may have a name where different roots are combined in a signle one...For example: "Braun Blaquier", "Catelin Paz", "Caselli-Urrutia", "Meyer -Pellegrini" or "Lopez-Murphy"....Just to quote a few examples.

Vanesa.

Vanesa,
as the saying goes: Peruvians descend from the Incas, Mexicans rom the Mayas - we Argentineans descend from the boats I mean as a follow-up to your remark about the mixing of surnames with different backgrounds.

Here, in Argentina is pretty common that high class families would form their family names making them "composés" (I don't know how to say it in English). They combines names from father family and mother's family and they makes just one. They are some of them who passed combined this way , as if it was a single name. For example, if the father was named Urquiza and the mother Anchorena, the family's name should be "Urquiza-Anchorena" And the hilarious thing is that you may have a name where different roots are combined in a signle one...For example: "Braun Blaquier", "Catelin Paz", "Caselli-Urrutia", "Meyer -Pellegrini" or "Lopez-Murphy"....Just to quote a few examples.

Vanesa.

Very interesting, Vanessa. So the real surname of Máxima is "Cerruti-Zorreguieta" and not only "Zorreguieta"?

Very interesting, Vanessa. So the real surname of Máxima is "Cerruti-Zorreguieta" and not only "Zorreguieta"?

No, Regina - the man's name comes first! That's what they're head of the family for So it would be Zorreguieta Cerrutti But that depends on whether the parents register the child with both their surnames, it's not automatic, as I think it's in Spain?

For instance, Máxima's mother is María del Carmen Cerruti Carricart (or Carricat, I've seen it written in both ways). That is her full surname (a double one) as a single woman. When married to Jorge Z., she can also be called M. del C. Cerruti Carricart de Zorreguieta, or even plain Maria del Carmen Zorreguieta (as she did in the ad I posted)